100% UNIQUE o n o @) z " n d n o r r tr1 n o z II ":Y : - "; ...-, "':''' J.' r;- . : . ,) . ..""'""""" \.. .' .. \ " ,,,",', ' -. '-'. ., , y;. LJ< ' '" . . ."\ APPRECIATE THE DIFFERENCE OF THE CENTO DIAMOND. VISIT WWWCENTOCOLLECTION.COM 1.877.CENTO-100 14 THE NEW YORKER, DECEMBER 18, 2006 expat drug addicts struggling with love and death in a divided city. The album received a mixed crit- ical response and was a commercial flop. Report- edly, Reed has never performed "Berlin" live, but he's doing so here on four nights, with the assis- tance of the producers Bob Ezrin (who helped cre- ate the album) and Hal Willner, the singers Sha- ron Jones and Antony, the artist and set designer Julian Schnabel, and others. SOCIETY FOR ETHICAL CULTURE 2 W. 64th St. (212-874-5210)-The Los Angeles- based singer-songwriter Judith Owen and her hus- band, the comedic actor Harry Shearer, invite the audience to get in on the action at their holiday sing-along. THE STONE Avenue C at 2nd St. (No phone)-In Cambridge, England, in 1968, as youthful revolution swept Eu- rope, the composer, guitarist, and wildcat improviser Fred Frith formed the band Henry Cow with the multi-instrumentalist Tim Hodgkinson and, a few years later, the drummer Chris Cutler, to traffic in avant-progressive rock and jazz with an everything- but -the-kitchen-sink approach. The shifting group of fellow-travellers (the band's outlook was Commu- nist) lasted a decade and was an integral part of the Rock in Opposition movement, a late-seventies anti- music-business campaign with ideas familiar to mem- bers of today's indie-rock scene. On the weekend of the octogenarian drummer plays with the vigor and inventiveness of musicians born decades after his own inspiring work with the likes of Young, Parker, Coltrane, and Corea. BLUE NOTE 131 W. 3rd St., near Sixth Ave. (212-475-8592)- Dec. 14-17: A musical institution by now, the Man- hattan Transfer flaunts tight harmonies and dis- penses infectious good humor. Expect selections from their new album, "An Acapella Christmas." DIZZY'S CLUB COCA-COLA Broadway at 60th St. (212-258-9595)-Dec. 12- 17: Randy Weston's African Rhythms. The pia- nist and composer's band combines the rhythmic diversity of the African diaspora with the lyrical smarts of New York bebop. Weston's percussive energy can be bracing-this is world music that never devalues its sources. IRIDIUM 1650 Broadway, at 51st St. (212-582-2121)- Dec. 13-17: Joey DeFrancesco, an acolyte of the late fa- ther of Hammond-organ jazz-funk, Jimmy Smith, will be joined by two guest soloists, the vibraphon- ist Bobby Hutcherson and the saxophonist Ron Blake. Mondays belong to the electric-guitar inno- vator Les Paul. The Charles Mingus legacy bands- the sizable Mingus Big Band and Mingus Orches- tra, along with the smaller Mingus Dynasty-are in rotation on Tuesdays. TABLES FOR TWO BOQUERIA 53 W.19th St. (212-255-4160)-There's something inherently social about tapas-the free-form shar- ing of dishes, the way a quick snack can expand into a banquet or glasses of sangria can blur into pitchers. At Boqueria, a new tapas bar in Chelsea named after Barcelona's food market, the sense of informality is enhanced by a long communal table that dominates the dining room and by the fact that all the seats are barstool height. The result is a convivial room, almost always populated by a thirty-something crowd. The menu delivers some familiar favorites with original touches. A brandade of potato and salt cod is as creamy and comforting as one would ex- pect, but toasted breadcrumbs and crispy arugula give it a crunch like that of Japanese deep-fried seaweed. Shrimp fried in oil, fiercely flavored with garlic and guindilla peppers, are most notable for the delicacy with which they are cooked-not a second too long, so that each one bursts in the mouth. The deep, vinegary tang of a lentil stew is heightened with ingeniously thin round crisps of Serrano ham-porcine Communion wafers-and poached egg. Even the simplest Catalan dish of all, $ . . . . oiled bread scraped with garlic and tomato, is pre- pared with obvious care. Not everything is a success. One recent evening, an insipid special of snapper fillet, on a bed of wa- tery vegetable strips, suggested that maybe it's best to stick to the canonical offerings. Paella proved sim- ilarly underwhelming, as a good deal of the rice was welded to the inside of the pan. But another rice dish, the risotto-like arroz cremoso, was a successful inno- vation, its base flavors of salt cod, mussel broth, and Manchego sweetened by a very unexpected, and un- Spanish, ingredient: lychees. The sheer popularity of the place means that it can be lively to the point of insanity. (Reserva- tions are not accepted, and there is little room in which to wait.) Furthermore, the high chairs have the same effect as a low ceiling, subjecting diners to noise levels sufficient to provoke deep animal panic. Eying a long tiled wall, one felt that it might be an idea to swathe it-and possibly some of the guests-in carpeting. (Open daily for lunch and dinner. Dishes $6-$26.) -Leo Carey Dec. 15-17, Frith, Hodgkinson, and Cutler reunite for the first time in nearly three decades. The first night, the electric bassist Hugh Hopper, of the like- minded Soft Machine, will also be on hand. (For more information, visit www.thestonenyc.com.) JAZZ AND STANDARDS ALGONQUIN HOTEL 59 W. 44th St. (212-840-6800)- Through Jan. 13: The vocalist Andrea Marcovicci invokes the spirit of Hildegarde, the larger-than-life, if now little-remembered, queen of mid-century Ameri- can night life. BIRDLAND 315 W. 44th St. (212-581-3080)-Dec. 13-16: Roy Haynes. Fronting his Fountain of Youth band, JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER Broadway at 60th St. (212-721-6500)-Dec. 14- 16: "Red Hot Holiday Stomp." Wynton Marsa- lis and friends-including Wycliffe Gordon, Her- lin Riley, and Don Vappie-jazz up the season in their customary rousing fashion. JAZZ STANDARD 116 E. 27th St. (212-576-2232)-Dec. 15-17: Mose Allison, a caustically brilliant songwriter and ec- centric pianist and singer, hasn't recorded an album in a while, but his stock of originals ( "Your Mind Is on Vacation") and recontextualized standards ("You Are My Sunshine") guarantees an evening brimming with wit and personality. RUBIN MUSEUM OF ART 150 W. 17th St. (212-620-5000)-Dec. 15: The pia- nist Laszlo Gardony, supported by the drummer Yoron Israel and the bassist John Lockwood, perfonns ma- terial from his new album, "Natural Instinct."